


Battleships

by TheAndorianMiningConsortium



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: Dreams, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-27
Updated: 2014-05-27
Packaged: 2018-01-26 19:04:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1699229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAndorianMiningConsortium/pseuds/TheAndorianMiningConsortium





	Battleships

Socialising with humans was not an easy thing. The captain had made it _sound_ easy - saying _please_ and _thank you_ , recognizing all the little social niceties... but the reality was quite, quite different.

For example, how does one respond to a request to borrow an item? A tool from the toolkit, or something of the sort? Shran had thought that replying with "yes, but return it immediately after you've finished" was perfectly reasonable, but judging by the look on the young Ensign's face, once again he'd managed to fall far short of the goal. And what about when someone was in your way? Even using the magic word ' _please_ ' didn't seem to get the desired effect: "Please get out of my way," somehow, was rude?? What was he _supposed_ to say? He already felt stupid using the word so librally as it was, but to step it up further, to say something like "please do me the honour of moving so that I may have the benefit of passing by your location" felt ludicrous... and had made him feel like he had just spontaniously combusted right there in the corridor the first time he'd tried it. ...He had not tried it again.

Asking for advice helped a little, but there were so many tiny things that he didn't even know that he needed to be aware of in the first place, and after a time, it became mind numbing.

Finally, after a particularly fruitless day on the socialising front, Shran retired to his quarters to spend some much needed alone time. Alone in the chamber, he rested listlessly on the bed, not sleeping, still dressed, just _thinking_. Pondering. Alone with his thoughts.

What he wouldn't give to have another Andorian on board. Just one would do, just one. Tholos, Keval, even Jhamel... _anyone_. Someone who he could relax his guard around, someone who would understand what he meant whenever he opened his mouth and spoke, someone who did not take insult at being spoken to directly... someone who spoke to him, the way _he_ spoke to _them_.

He reached for the bottle, and looked at it for several minutes, gazing into its cool, transparent blue midsts.

It was Andorian, so it seemed, for the moment, the closest thing he could have that would give him some sense of his own kind.

Odd, he thought idly, that it was the same colour as his blood.

He set it down, beside the bed where he would easily be able to reach it if he wanted it, then grasped for his PADD and began to read. But as his eyes trailed over the words - letters in Andorian and English, instructions on the words of the English language, nothing went in. They were all just meaningless shapes, and he was unable to focus.

_What he wouldn't give for another Andorian here._

Little by little, he drifted off.

 _A tug on the duvet told Shran that there was someone else there, but somehow, he did not feel any surprise. The sensation was a familiar one, and as he turned and fixed his gaze on the shape that had appeared on the other side of the bed, his murky vision solidified it into an equally familiar face. Talas, lying relaxed and spreadeagled upon the duvet, the picture of idleness. An idleness that she_ never _showed in her day-to-day, professional countenance, that only slipped out in her idle moments. Relaxing at the end of the day, breathing away the stress of working life, her hair spread out like a flurry of snow across the pillow, the hardness and sternness of Talas the Tactical Officer gone, and a hint of a smile replacing that look now. A question lay, unspoken on her lips._

_Without waiting for her to speak, Shran quietly answered it. "I messed up," he explained. "That's why I'm here."_

_"You mean on_ Columbia _," she replied. It wasn't a question, just a statement._

_"I should be serving my own people."_

_She sighed and rolled her eyes as though the whole thing was ludicrous. "When ordinary people do extraordinary things..." she muttered, then laughed, then turned over and looked him dead in the eyes._

_"The Romulans destroyed the_ Kumari _," she said. "Just what do you think you are doing, if not serving your people? Idling away wasting time, I suppose?" She laughed again. "Don't be stupid."_

_He couldn't think of a response to that, so he kept quiet and let her continue._

_"They may have destroyed our battleship," she said, "but they won't beat us."_

_"It's not_ us _they're after."_

 _"What do you think they'll do after they destroy these pink-skins, hm? Of_ course _they'll come after our people next. We can see to it that they won't win."_

 _"_ We _?" he frowned. "_ You're _supposed to be dead."_

_"I suppose I am. But you obviously need someone to give you a little pep-talk, and since I don't see anyone else coming to your aid..." she left the rest unsaid, implied only._

Oh _, thought Shran._ I get it. I'm crazy.

_"Not really," Talas replied. When Shran looked surprised she waved a dismissive hand. "Characters in dreams are just a manifestation of you, you know. You should know that. Or didn't you pay attention in psychology? Oh- I forgot, you went to a sub-par school, didn't you. Still, you must know that, on some level, otherwise I wouldn't be able to say it. Or maybe I'm just making this up."_

_"Shut up," he sighed, turning away from her._

_"A fine thanks I get for showing up. I thought you'd be_ pleased _to see me. You_ should _be." She placed a hand on his shoulder and forced him to turn and face her again._

 _"Here's an idea," Talas went on. "It's dark and it's night and it's just you and me. Stop being a soldier for now, take a few moments to_ enjoy _what we have, even if it's not real. And worry about what I said tomorrow. Can you do that?"_


End file.
